Friday, December 30, 2011

It's rare that I quote the words of others on my blog, since I prefer to share my own musings. Occasionally, however, I find something so stirring that I ask the author for permission to share. In most cases, this has taken the form of op-ed type paragraphs, photographs from space events, or journal entries from studies.

Featuring a poem is definitely a first! But I found this beautiful piece of writing so elegant, so profound, and so very moving, I thought I would make it my final post for 2011.

"This piece was built using Adobe Photoshop CS5. The background image is of the "Black Eye Galaxy" M64. Image credit goes to NASA and The Hubble Heritage Team (AURA/STScI), with acknowledgments to S. Smartt (Institute of Astronomy) and D. Richstone (U. Michigan).

The poem is my creation--inspired largely by reading Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson's excellent book Death by Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandaries." ~ Jake

September: Einstein set a speed limit and it seems some physicists think neutrinos are breaking it, so are we gonna have a problem with that, Theory of Special Relativity? If Faster-Than-Light particles are found, we will see a whole lot of excitement and controversy in the world of particle physics. However, the only thing that shocked me was that it was NEWS to so many.

The initial theory was put forth by a Portuguese cosmologist named João Magueijo in a fantastic book called "Faster Than The Speed of Light" (2003). He was clearly ignored, but espoused the theory of Variable Speeds of Light (VSL), insisting that during creation and development of the Universe, light waves have fluctuated. Most young physicists know the work, and those who comprehend quantum mechanics are very familiar... but trying to get the Old Guy Contingent to embrace new parameters of classical physics is like buying your 20-year-old canine an iPhone.

November:Mars500 "landed on Earth" after 520 days of simulation inside the "spaceship" in which they traveled to the red planet, frolicked upon the surface of the red planet, then flew home. Can humans cope with the emotional stress and isolation of long duration-spaceflight? They emerged, pale, grinning, and still sane. Radiation and Micro-Gravity sims of the same duration would be harder, methinks.

December: HISTORY, baby! Astronomers discovered Exoplanet Kepler-22b, the first planet outside the solar system orbiting in the Galactic Habitable Zone (GHZ) around its star. Could life potentially exist? With each passing year, we clever little hairless apes get closer and closer to being able to detect such evidence!

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Just when you thought there were certain staples in life you could count on.Time Magazine released their annual Year in Review book. 138 pages for $35. Casey Anthony and Justin Bieber got larger photographs and text blocks than the Space Shuttle Program, 1981-2011. Lady Gaga got two pages. No joke.

Some of my pals tried to comfort me by saying they wouldn't buy it, and agreed it was ridiculous that pop culture trumped science, politics and nature. A few asked about other public figures, which I had to try to recall from memory, because I sure wasn't about to buy that book.

Kim Jongs Il & Un shared one page. The Iceland volcano also had its own page. No mention of bin Laden at all. The movie "Avatar" filled another two-page spread.

Friday, December 23, 2011

I mentioned yesterday that Geoff Notkin of the Meteorite Men gave me a copy of his book, which now holds the distinction of being the tome in my personal library with quite utterly the longest title ever:

But, accurate, certainly. And so full of passion! There is something so compelling about someone who is excited about how they make their living... those amazing people who bound out of bed and cannot wait to do what they do. Seeking bits of an alien world is a unique mission, as evidenced by Geoff's eloquent introduction:

"Meteorites are the most remarkable things on our planet, and they are not even from this planet. They are pieces of extra-terrestrial rock and metal that have fallen onto the surface of the earth. Meteorites are at tangible link with an existence outside of the world we know and are, literally, visitors from outer space… within them are clues to the origin of suns, planets, asteroids, and possibly, even life itself. They are valued by enthusiasts because a space rock is, perhaps, the most intriguing of all collectibles."

If he wanted to light a fire under people to make them want to go hunt meteorite themselves, this book absolutely succeeds!

Then I look at pictures like this and realizeI'm quite cozy at home watching on TV, thanks.

Well, even if I never canvas a frozen Russian steppe with a metal detector, thanks to Geoff I can now intelligently articulate regmaglypts, chondrules, ablation, bolide, and strewnfields. Can you tell the difference between a fall and a find? How about the difference between a crater and an impact pit?

About halfway through the book was the intriguing sentence, "Nothing gets Meteorite Men co-host Steve Arnold more charged up that a good fireball chase!" Alrighty then. What's a fireball?

Well you can find that out, and more, in these helpful and educational pages – but don't think it's all fun and games. One must consider, as Notkin highlights from experience, the pitfalls of permits vs. trespassing, local laws for space rock hunting – and let's pretend for a moment that field equipment isn't exactly cheap.

Backhoe rentals. Also not cheap.

Another reality of the meteorite hunting life is all the "meteowrongs" one is apt to dig up in serious pursuits, and Geoff describes a hilarious list of objects he's unearthed over the years, including unexploded bombs and missiles! So my sofa is looking comfier all the time.

But hey, for those of you more apt to frolic in the wild with shovels and snappy multi-pocketed utility vests, remember:

"Most meteorites spent millions of years traveling through the vacuum of space at temperatures approaching absolute zero. When meteorites land on our planet, they are immediately exposed to oxygen and moisture, and the process of terrestrialization begins. Iron starts to oxidize, the decay of radioactive isotopes commences, and delicate fusion crust will begin to corrode. The sooner a fresh fall is delivered into the hands of a researcher, the more valuable it is to science. There is a real urgency to recover new falls and get them to labs as quickly as possible."

You haven't lived until you've dug holes in every continent

So are there any catches to living the exciting life of a meteorite man? A few, says Geoff. Seems he has a growing pile of boxes crowding into his life, filled with rocks. The senders want to know if they have found meteorites? But wait, I said, puzzled; the book clearly indicates how to identify meteorites in the laboratory and in the field.

Geoff laughed. He knows. He wrote it. But even with the advised magnet tests, estimations of weight and density, and describing varying means of visual identification based on features, it turns out that he increased rather than lessened the numbers of people sending him rocks in boxes!

Punchline: read his book, or the Meteorite Identification Tips on his Aerolite web page, you won't need to spend money to mail a rock to anyone. You'll have all the information you need to identify true meteorites!

Human nature:People want to send a rock to the guys on TV, so they can tell their friends about it.

Someday, I want to look this happy standing inside an Impact Crater

What's next for the Meteorite Men? Well, I'm personally hoping to see an ANTARCTICA ROAD TRIP! Catch Meteorite Men on the Science Channel Monday evenings. If you miss the show at its premiere time, it's also run twice more for you night owls, and can also be found On Demand in many areas that offer DirecTV.

He let me touch his rock. And this one was heavier than I am! (I think I asked him where he found it, and he told me, but I was so bowled over by all the fun that I promptly forgot. If I find it on his website somewhere, I'll update later. ;)

Heather & Geoff

Being oblivious to most things on cable television, I was something of a buzzkill latecomer to the space rocks party, but was quite immediately hooked by their adventures once I tuned into the new episodes!

Geoff tells great stories, works hard to engage people interactively in the science of his calling, and truly brings to life the excitement of being a meteorite hunter -- whether it's fun, rugged, intoxicating, cold, crowded, rewarding, life-threatening... or all of the above:

здравствуйте = Russian = Hello!

Like astronaut Bill Gregory before him, he spoke about his training and knowledge base, then took questions from the children. He also then challenged them to answer questions about things they were learning at their Astronomy Night event, and passed out copies of his book to those who offered up correct responses.

Geoff kept the audience well-engaged, and stayed for hours displaying his meteorite samples, answering questions about his tools of the trade, and signing autographs or posing for photos with everyone who asked.

I also managed to get a signed book, which I've been reading hungrily and will describe tomorrow. For the entire suite of pictures from the evening, see the Astronomy Night album in my Picasa Gallery.

At the time of the mission, Bill and his crew set a duration record of 16 days, 15 hours, 8 minutes and 46 seconds, while completing 262 orbits and traveling nearly seven million miles.

Long story short, Bill showed some fun mission videos, narrated a great slide show, spoke at length and then fielded the usual astronautesque questions from surrouding children about what it is like to live and work in weightlessness, and how one trains for those spacey duties.

I think my favorite story was about how it was his job to clean the space toilet. Still want to be a pilot? Not all glamour and glitz, it seems.

On a more serious note, my favorite part is the video clip above, showing a lightning storm Gregory filmed from space! Awesome stuff.

His mission was also the second flight of the ASTRO telescope, which can be seen in one of the slides.

See the entire collection of photos in theAstronomy Night album on Picasa, which also includes images of a few other scheduled events, as listed on the giant screen behind Bill's head!

And seriously, if you child's school is NOT holding an evening like this at least once per year, find out why. Science Matters.

Monday, December 19, 2011

After departing Houston on Road Trip #432 (that's just a wild guess), I drove through Arizona (it's rather IN THE WAY if one hopes to reach California) and stopped in Ahwatukee (a suburb of Phoenix) to join a giant crowd of fellow nerds (genus: Not-Trekkie-Nerds) at Astronomy Night at the Akimel A-al School!

That may have been the most distracted compound sentence to ever appear on my blog. But, it's December and you're all too busy shopping to read things carefully anyway. So posts this week will be largely pictorial...

8th graders know more than you do

This delightful annual event for students, parents and local space enthusiasts is open to the public, so I didn't even have to sneak in just because I'm a hopeless astronaut groupie!

Yes, there was an astronaut there, and I will feature him tomorrow... but first! Check out some of the amazing projects completed by the 7th and 8th graders of the local Middle School.

Pluto still gets lots of love

I must say, it was so immensely gratifying to see such widespread interest in so many areas of science by energetic and curious youngsters, many of whom incorporated profound research and even some beautiful works of art into their chosen projects.

Clearly, this school benefits from enthusiastic teachers, involved parents, and participation from local clubs and museums -- including the Saguaro Astronomy Club, the Phoenix Astronomical Society and even the esteemed Challenger Space Center of Arizona -- many of whom sent speakers, laptop presentations, interactive games for all ages, and even models of asteroids.

Conveniently, and in addition to the Space Shuttle pilot who spoke, there was also a meteorite pro on-hand to answer questions about extra-terrestrial rocks and how to find them on Earth. When YouTube finally starts cooperating this week instead of ruthlessly changing all of our channel front formats, I'll embed a few clips for our viewing pleasure...

What, indeed?

Check out my Astronomy Night album in my Picasa Gallery to see more wonderful projects from a whole lotta smart kids, including cosmological breakfast cereals and NASA space suit diagrams. Many more videos and pictures to come of this great event, so stay tuned!

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

In early November, the Mars500 crew left the isolation of their spaceship when they "landed" back on Earth after a 520-day mission simulation to the Red Planet.

Following the official hatch opening, the crew faced continued medical checks and follow-up studies that were compared to their pre-simulation data. Alexey, Sukrob, Aleksandr, Wang, Romain and Diego (the latter two are keeping everyone updated from their Twitter accounts) will for some time remain under the eye of the mission controllers as data is analyzed, but can now enjoy all those things they probably took for granted before in life... family and friends... sunshine and trees... life on Earth!

Some members of the crew are on a rock star tour of sorts, attending PR events sponsored by the ESA for the European members in France, Italy and Spain. Each of these are designed to communicate their experiences and early sim results to teachers, university students, media and other space agency reps.

On December 6th, a Mars500 Tweetup was held in Rome for a select lucky few; Luca Di Fino of Rome, who tweets under the @ Luke2375 handle, was kind enough to share some of his wonderful photographs from this fun event.

Luke is a physicist involved in the ALTEA experiment aboard the ISS who also writes the ALTEA Space blog in English and the LucaDiFino blog in Italian. Both carried reports of the Mars500 Tweetup and fantastic photos.

Monday, December 12, 2011

Every astronaut or cosmonaut who has perished in space flight (3), died during launch (7) or died during re-entry to Earth's atmosphere (8) have been commemorated with various posthumous medals, statues, memorials and museum exhibits.

Some have had libraries, schools or streets named after them in their hometowns, or even geological formations on the Moon or Mars titled in their memory. Still others have been the subjects of songs, documentaries, and one disaster was dramatized in a TV movie.

Among all these variations, all the fallen space travelers have one specific honor in common... all have asteroids named after them.

Friday, December 9, 2011

Do you know how special the state of Ohio is to NASA? 21 astronauts were born in Ohio, 4 more moved there as small children and thus consider Ohio their home, and 12 more got their college degrees in Ohio! Wow.

Why so many from Ohio? Perhaps it's because two great astronaut role models, John Glenn and Neil Armstrong, are from Ohio. Perhaps it's because, thanks to the Wright Brothers, Ohio is the birthplace of flight? Probably a combination of both, and given early education about famous flyers from their state, more folks from Ohio grow up dreaming about the stars!

Still, the number of inhabitants in Ohio (which contains only 3% of the entire American population) is rather low in comparison to California, Florida or Texas, where one might expect a greater showing in the astronaut corps. Nope! Percentage-wise, Ohio tops the list with their magic #21:

Ohio is also the only state to boast nearly an entire mission crew from within their borders! Ohioans definitely followed STS-70with great prid, because four of five astronauts on Space Shuttle Discovery -- Nancy Currie, Tom Henricks, Don Thomas, and Mary Ellen Weber -- were from Ohio. Then Governor George Voinovich attended the launch and made the fifth crew member, Kevin Kregel, an "honorary Ohio citizen".

During the flight, the mission control center played the Cleveland Indians baseball song as a wake-up call for the crew. (Nancy Currie was actually born in Delaware but moved as a baby to Troy, Ohio… so she considers this her "hometown" . What do you think? Should we them get away with that one?)

Thursday, December 8, 2011

Of the 522 space travelers I had the pleasure of researching and studying throughout November while creating my Astronaut Birthplaces Map, perhaps the most exclusive group of astronauts are the Moonwalkers: 12 humans who walked on the Lunar surface between July 1969 and December 1972.

All were male. All were American. All were Caucasian. All were born between 1923 and 1935. Three of the 12 men were Texans. One, Buzz Aldrin, earned a PhD.

All but one were military men. Jack Schmitt was the lone geologist, and the only one who didn't serve in the armed forces. Of the remaining 11, seven were Navy men and four were in the Air Force.

Three are now already deceased: Conrad, Shepard and Irwin.

The nickname "Buzz" originated in childhood when his sister mispronounced "brother" as "buzzer", and this was shortened to Buzz. Aldrin made it his legal first name in 1988. When signing his name, he now tends to cross out "Edwin" on photographs or in older books.

Eugene Cernan's distinction as the last person to walk on the moon meant that Purdue University of Indiana would hold the honor of being the alma mater of both the first person to walk on the moon and the last. Neil Armstrong earned Bachelor of Science degree in aeronautical engineering. Cernan earned his B.S. in electrical engineering.

Modern space suits possess urine collection hoses with pelvic attachments, and it is assumed that men will fit one of the available sizes: L, XL or XXL. In deference to astro-egos, there is no S or M. This was not the case with the Apollo EVA suits. Among the 100+ items left on the surface of the moon by Armstrong and Aldrin are four urine collection assemblies – two Large and two Small. Which man wore which size remains unknown.

The Apollo 11 moon-walkers are the only astronauts to have a "star" on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, though their marker is actually round. You know, in the shape of the moon.

Number nine John Young was also the first commander of a Space Shuttle orbiter.

The youngest at the time of his moonwalk was 37. The eldest was 47.

Scott. Everest. Moonrock.

While not a lunar surface veteran, Scott Parazynski (STS-66, STS-86, STS-95, STS-100, STS-120) took a moon rock and other small remembrances of fallen astronauts to the summit of Mount Everest in 2009. He is the first and only astronaut to climb the world's tallest peak. So perhaps that is the smallest club, after all ;)

Then again… someone who is a real space geek might start wondering if any of those dates held interesting facts or milestones. Someone with time on their hands might actually look for patterns.

For instance: In terms of birth dates, the oldest space traveler was Georgi Beregovoi of the Ukraine, a Cosmonaut born April 15, 1921, just 3 years after the revolution that dethroned the last tsar, and put Lenin at the head of communist Russia. John Glenn clocks in second, born on July 18, 1921… when World War I officially ended under President Warren G. Harding.

The youngest space traveler is Yi So-Yeon of South Korea, a KAP taikonaut born June 2, 1978. Russia has recently selected new cosmonauts born in the 1980s, but as yet none have flown. This record will continue to change, of course, where as Beregovoi will always be the "earliest born earthling who went into space".

Pays to be a dreamer...

Jack Lousma is the only space traveler from Earth born on February 29th. He celebrates his birthday every four trips around the sun when we have a Leap Year!

NASA astronaut Gregory Linters was born October 4, 1957 – the very first astro-child born after Sputnik was launched. He was the first Space Race Baby!

The most space travelers were born in the month of August. Second place, May. December and July are tied for the least number of Astros, at 33 apiece.

Since 1923, at least one space traveler has been born every year until 1973. The leanest years were 1924 and 1938, when only singles are on record: Deke Slayton (NASA) and Jean-Loup Chrétien (CNES) , respectively.

The year that saw the most births of future astros? 25 space travelers were born in the year 1956.

On April 12, 1961, Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human to enter space and return safely. Belgian spationaute Frank De Winne (ESA) was born April 25th of that same year, the first space traveler born into a space-faring world.

On July 20, 1969, Astronauts Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong become the first humans to land on the lunar surface. American astronaut Tracy Caldwell Dyson (NASA) was born August 14 of that same year, the first space traveler born after the historic moon walk.

Thursday, December 1, 2011

Wow... is it that time of year again already? Didn't I just scrape the tinsel off my boot from the last round? *Sigh.*Black Friday. Cyber Monday. Pretty soon we will just call the entire winter season: "Shoptember".

I went to the grocery store at 6:15am this morning (no joke – the best time to produce-shop, quickly and painlessly, is before 8am), and then made it a point not to go near any merchants, large or small... an embargo that will remain in effect until December 31st. I'm a nerd. Most of my friends are nerds. And you certainly don't want us shopping in packs. Here's why:

If you have a nerd on your Shopping List (and you do, or you are one), remember that we honestly don't understand why anyone leaves the comfort of their wireless laptops to visit malls anymore. You can order online from ThinkGeek and have anything delivered to your doorstep. That's been my rule for clothing and necessities for some years now.

I am not even remotely kidding. Click the links to see these genuine products:

Avoid anything Hello Kitty or things with the word "nerd" actually on them. We already have phasers and remote control Millennium Falcons, so don't bother. Favorable options will be anything preceded by the designation "Ninja", any and all "red shirt" jokes, and of course, anything at all with the NASA logo on it.

The best place for the latter is The Space Store & NASA Gift Shop... though I deliberately refrained from posting individual products from here, because once I get rolling, I wind up broke.

And remember, the first rule of Bacon Club is… you do not talk about Bacon Club. Your friendly neighborhood 01101110 01100101 01110010 01100100 thanks you.